Chapter 2: Debriefing

A/N To the reviewer known as Guest: That was not my plan, and as I stated, this is canon compliant until roughly the last two minutes of the second-to-last episode of Volume 8. That includes relationships, as stated.

V8! Ruby

I groaned. Where were we? My head pounded as I slowly opened my eyes. What had happened? I remember Atlas, fighting Cinder- My eyes shot open and I stood up very fast. It was night. I was facing… the Beacon CCT tower? How? Then I looked down, and saw… myself? She had Crescent Rose, and the outfit that I wore at the… dance… she used our(?) semblance and had Crescent Rose ready to swing at my neck.

"Who are you? Why do you look like me?"

I almost forgot how high-pitched and fast I used to talk.

"...What?"

"Did I say that out loud? Sorry. By the way, I think I'm you from the future."

"What? How? What?" The younger me squeaked.

"Never mind." I get the team's attention. "We need to find Ozpin!"

"And what would you like to see me about?"

I turned to see Ozpin at the crater's rim. It was weird seeing him outside of Oscar again. "A seasonal problem." Hopefully he understands the code.

His eyes widened slightly. "I see. Come talk to me in my office. By the way, what is your name?"

"Ruby Rose." I should have thought of a code name… too late now.

"But… but… but… HOW?!" Younger me asked loudly.

"I ran really, really fast. But I have to go now."

We went up to Ozpin's office. It's nice to see this place again. After Beacon fell…

Ozpin sat down in his chair. "So tell me, what do you know?"

I gathered my thoughts. "Well, we know about the Maidens and the Relics. We know that there is a virus in the CCT. We know that Cinder Fall, she stole the Fall Maiden's powers, is here undercover as a student. And we know about Salem. And you die and Pyrrha dies and Beacon is destroyed and Penny dies and -" I started crying.

Future!Blake

Ozpin looked at us in shock. Then he leaned forward, and asked Ruby "Do you need some time?"

"Y-yes."

I stepped forward. "I might be able to explain. The person who stole the Fall Maiden's powers is named Cinder Fall. She's working with people named Emerald and Mercury. They're posing as students from Haven. They put a virus into the CCT, allowing them to access pretty much everything."

Ozpin leaned back. "This is… concerning. I will need to tell James about this, and ask Leo how they-"

"NO!" We all shouted.

"Don't tell Professor Lionheart!" Jaune yelled.

"Why?" Ozpin asked.

"Lionheart is a traitor. He sold out - will sell out? - most of Mistral's huntsmen to Salem's henchmen, and adjusted the files to give Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald student IDs." I said.

"This is - concerning. Very well. Anything else? Might as well tell me now."

"Yes." It was Weiss who answered this time. "There is a collection of White Fang members working with Roman Torchwick in the subway tunnels under Mountain Glenn. They plan to use a subway train loaded with bombs to draw in Grimm, and open up a giant hole in the middle of Vale. Furthermore, there is a plan to destroy Beacon during the Vytal Festival. When it happened, You, Pyrrha Nikos, and Penny Polendina died, along with hundreds of civilian casualties. The CCT was brought down, and a giant Grimm dragon made reopening Beacon impossible, even after Ruby turned it to stone. There is other information, but most of it happens because of the Fall of Beacon, and so it isn't relevant right now." Her professional manner almost disguised her emotional state. Almost

"I see." Ozpin thought for a moment. "Well, what do you five want to do?"

Past!Jaune

"Mind if I sit here?"

I looked up at my older self. My team looked apprehensive. "Sure," I said slowly.

Everyone at Beacon had heard the news. Apparently, we and team RWBY had been fighting some Grimm outside Atlas two years from now. The glacier they were on had shifted, and while Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha had made it off, Ruby had had to use her semblance and grabbed the rest of us, and went fast enough to travel through time. Accidentally.

It seemed like something out of a comic, and I had read enough to know that.

Nora thought it was a cover story, but no-one believed her.

Even though future-Me kept tearing up when he saw Pyrrha.

And Yang was missing an arm.

And - the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

The rest of lunch passed in idle chatter, about the future and -

"So, Nora and Ren are together in the future."

"REALLY!? Like, together-together?" Nora shrieked. Seriously, the entire cafeteria could hear her.

"Um - what - what - what?" Ren seemed frozen.

"Yeah…" Future me gathered his thoughts. "We were in Kuroyuri-" Nora visibly wilted at this, paling. So did Ren.

"Why were you there?"

"C-someone had gotten sick, and we weren't able to call an airship. We hit a fork in the road, me and Ruby going through Kuroyuri while you went up to the mountains to look for a faster way. We were walking through Kuroyuri, and then this Grimm showed up. I think it was called the Nucklavee. It almost killed Ruby and I, then you two came back. Ren lost his weapons, and almost commited suicide to try and kill the thing by rushing it with a knife. Nora pulled you back, and the two of you had an emotional conversation underneath a porch. Then we killed it."

"Seriously? Just 'we killed it?" Ren ranted. "That thing killed hundreds of people and wrecked villages, including ours!" What? Ren and Nora had never talked about their pasts. Remorse welled up inside me.

"It was a long fight. I just summarized the important parts. After that-"

"Stop." It was Nora, being uncharacteristically quiet. "We need time to process this." She and Ren walked off.

A/N: Sorry if you don't like how the ending conversation went. I will be adding more next time. Speaking of, this fic is on hiatus. I don't think I'm good enough to write this right now. Instead, I am going to be writing a different RWBY fic: an actually good self-insert called A Visitor comes to Remnant. I am going to be taking a month to plan, and the first chapter should come out on Halloween. Don't worry; I won't be replacing any of the main cast, or altering teams too drastically. With that said, have a good time.